No Place That Far
by Takianna
Summary: Obi-wan finally says what he couldn't say when held under the tenants of the jedi order. This is Obidala, just a warning.


**No****Place****That****Far**

"Medically, she is completely healthy. For reasons we can't explain, we are losing her." the droid had said in that terribly offhand way that droids did. Obi-wan hated the way they sounded like they were concerned, but you knew they weren't because they were droids. They were metal and programming, nothing more. How he hated droids.

"She's dying?" Obi-wan asked. It was hard for him to believe that this woman, who was stronger then most men could be, would be dying for no apparent reason. There had to be a reason and Obi-wan had to find it. He had to save her, because she could not save herself at the moment.

"Hey," he said leaning over the table to look into Padme's eyes. Her eyelids fluttered closed and he gently nudged her with the force. A small push to make her open her eyes once again and look at him.

"Stay with me."

"With you?" Padme asked in a hoarse whisper, her throat badly burned from inhaling too much sulfer on Mustafar.

"Yes, with me."

Padme looked at him as though she was confused, her eyes questioning him, but her mouth saying nothing. She had been the wife of his former padawan, and it had been a mistake that caused so many things to go so terribly wrong including the terrible things that he had to do to what he would consider his own child. Could he really be asking her to hang onto life out of selfish needs of his own? Could he be asking her to love him?

"I don't understand," she said as he brushed some stray hair from her eyes which had matted there as the pain of labor had contorted her body and made sweat blot her head. It had subsided now as the pain medication the droids had given her set in and made her body almost numb. It matched what her heart was feeling. She couldn't love another, because Anakin, or whatever he is, had torn the heart from her chest as he stood there proclaiming that he would rule the galaxy.

"You have so much to live for, Padme," Obi-wan said smiling down at her. He had to convince her that she needed to live. Her life force was starting to becoming dim and he didn't want someone as special as her to fade from life. She had so much more to give and so much more to live. A life, perhaps, with him.

"My heart is broken," she said and sighed as though the pain were returning to her. She knew it wasn't because the medication had not worn off. It was a phantom pain of remembering someone she had loved so fiercely and someone who had pushed her aside so easily when his quest for power consumed him. Someone who had died at the hands of the man now looking down at her, with a sort of sorrow that she did not remember him ever having, even when Qui-gon had died.

"Hearts mend," Obi-wan said as though he should be the one who knew these things. He didn't know, but would like to find out. "These children. They need you. Would you leave me alone to take care of them?"

A small sad laugh escaped her lips, but he would take it. Sometimes mending started with such a small and almost imperceptible gesture. He reached down and squeezed her hand, wanting her to know that he was there with her. No matter what, for her sake and the sake of the children, he would always be with her. He had to take care of her.

Things were different now. He was no longer bound as a jedi because the jedi were no more and they would never be again. There was no order, there were no rules and he would spend the rest of his life being just another person who was insignificant in the galaxy. Although, somehow, Obi-wan thought that the force would question his insignificance as it twisted and turned until he was someone who was once again very significant. That was something that would have to be left to fate and destiny, two things that he didn't ever mess with if he had a choice.

"I don't know anything about raising children," he said squeezing her hand again. It seemed so very natural to be touching her in that way. It was something his heart had wanted since the beginning, but as a jedi he had denied himself even the thought of such a relationship. Now he was denying nothing. He was not denying the woman that he met all those years ago, a queen, who would do anything to save her people. When their eyes had met that very first time, he had known, but he had not wanted to know. Such a shame that he had wasted all those years with her. He had valued their friendship, but he could've valued so much more.

"You would do fine," Padme said and a small smile parted her lips. Another step towards her life force warming and finding its staying place, a staying place that Obi-wan hoped he could share with her. He wouldn't do fine though and that had been displayed with Anakin, who Obi-wan had raised from the time he was a child.

"Why did you bring me here?" Padme asked. Obi-wan was never one not to care, but he was risking so much by getting her treated in a place where the newly formed Empire could track them down. He was a wanted man. He was a jedi.

"I wanted to make sure that you and your child, well children, were safe," Obi-wan said matter of fact. "Would you think that I would leave you behind? Leave you so that Anakin could do as he pleased, should he survive? I would not let him have this child. These children are the future of the force."

Obi-wan had felt it since he felt the presence of the children, they were to be the future of the force, although both had clouded futures, there was just something nagging him to death about the importance they were to play. They had to survive and they had to have their mother to ground them, something that the jedi had ripped away from Anakin so brashly. They were reaping what they had sown now.

"Thank you," Padme said and squeezed his hand.

"You know I've always wanted to do this," Obi-wan said and bent to let his lips brush against hers.

"I'm glad you did," she said and smiled, her eyes finally lighting. "What if I would've slipped away, how would you have come and saved me then?"

"There is no place that far, that I can't get to you," Obi-wan said and a smile warmed his heart and spread across his lips. "I'm a jedi, remember? I can find you wherever you are, my heart will find yours."


End file.
